by Matt Oxley
Opal was recently featured in a Digital Journal article about the state of the Martech industry. To make a long story short: the article highlighted the phenomenon of more than one-thousand veteran Martech companies (5+ years of operation) closing down in the past year.
Opal was chosen to respond to this trend for two reasons:
- Opal is a veteran software company (14 years strong)
- During the past year, Opal had both strong financial performance and product innovation
The Digital Journal article included a broad range of different reasons for businesses to close, including:
- The crowded Martech space
- Companies being too reliant on investment capital
- Veteran software using AI wrong
- Not being specifically focused on the marketer
That last point is the one I really want to highlight…
How Opal Puts the Focus on the Marketer
Throughout our history, we’ve had hits and misses. Some choices we made paid off nicely – other ones, we wish we could take back. Unequivocally, the most important thing we ever did was keep our focus on the marketer.
As so many other tools try to expand verticals or try to be one-size-fits-all, Opal stayed focused on the creative market. They rewarded us by staying loyal to Opal.
In the article we said that we were focused on marketers, but now I want to explain how this manifests at Opal:
Our Design Philosophy – Bigger than any feature and functionality, our philosophy reflects our marketing commitment. Since marketing is an inherently visual discipline, we ALWAYS aim to build a platform that displays the visuals that comprise marketing. Not only does this allow marketers to work with the context of visual assets, it enables them to build internal credibility by showing up completely for their stakeholders.
Taking Inspiration from Marketers – The vast majority of Opal features and enhancements were inspired by marketers. Whether the method is a direct request from a customer or our insight after seeing how marketers work and the challenges they face, we build based on what real people need.
Our Exclusive Features – Because so many of our ideas come directly from marketers, it stands to reason that Opal includes many features that matter to working marketers. What is even more interesting is that many of these features (like our side-by-side content comparisons and auto-build presentations) are only in Opal.
Working to Build a Community – Outside of our software, the company works to build a community for marketers. That takes on many forms. For one, we often host marketing events where all of our users can meet up to talk about anything they want – while we make the intros. Potentially more meaningful, on a person-to-person basis, we work to connect marketers in our network. This often takes the form of trying to help the outstanding marketers who are looking for work find new roles with other members of our network.
As Opal continues to grow and build, this focus will still guide us.
The Martech Landscape as a Whole
I was eager to be featured in the Digital Journal article because this is a trend I have been observing organically in the market. Hearing the statistics and the analysis rang true with my experience in the market.
I sincerely hope that more Martech companies will continue developing platforms that truly serve the needs of today’s marketers. I am always open and eager to talk about the state of the Martech space and what’s next.
For any Martech founders or marketers who want to discuss the landscape and what’s next, connect with me on LinkedIn.
